Government now says no deadline to resettle IDPs

Olindhi Jayasundara - The government, despite earlier giving a pledge to resettle al the displaced people by the end of next month, now says there is no deadline for the resettlement of the Internally Displaced People (IDP) who are in camps in Vavuniya.

“We did not promise to complete the resettling process on a particular date. However, the Government is working hard towards completing the process as soon as possible,” he said.

He said that 100,000 IDPs still remain in the camps whilst 20,000 have been granted freedom of movement from the camps. The Minister said that the Government has organized ‘go and see visits’ for the IDPs to enable them to visit their homes and allow them to decide if they wish to remain in their home towns or otherwise.

“If they want to return to their homes, then they may. However, if they wish otherwise we will make other arrangement for them,” he said.

Minister Samarasinghe said that he could not comment on what would happen to the camps once all the IDPs are resettled in their homes, but said that the permanent structures once vacant will most likely be utilized for some purpose.

A Sri Lankan delegation had, earlier this month, assured India that it would resettle all internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Tamil origin by the end of January. The three-member delegation consisted of Senior Adviser to the President, Basil Rajapaksa; Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

© Daily Mirror

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Tamils refugees in SL to be resettled by Jan 2010 - PTI

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Sri Lanka: Minority dilemma

B. Muralidhar Reddy - The Tamil and Muslim minorities, who account for almost 18 per cent of Sri Lanka’s population, are in a dilemma on the options before them for the January 26 presidential election. They have three distinct choices: cast their lot with President Mahinda Rajapaksa; vote General Sarath Fonseka, the recently retired former Army chief who is backed by prominent opposition parties; or field their own nominee.

Their predicament is understandable as it was their decision to stay away from the last election, albeit under orders from Velupillai Prabakaran, the slain chief of the Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), that placed Rajapaksa in the saddle. Once again, they are being coaxed and courted to take a call and be the kingmakers.

However, there is one fundamental difference between now and November 2005. Unlike during the previous election, today the minorities are theoretically agents of their own will. But, in reality it is a myth despite the best efforts of the parties that claim to represent them.

For the first time since the country’s independence 48 years ago, representatives of the Tamil and Muslim parties, including the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA), met (between November 20 and 22) in Zurich, Switzerland, to take stock of the situation.

Although there was no fixed agenda, the objective of the conference was to arrive at a “common ground” and decide the future course of action. But it took place on an inauspicious note. The pro-LTTE TamilNet did not take kindly to the conference and denounced it as yet another conspiracy. In a feature titled “Tamil, Muslim political parties find their table in Zurich”, the website said: “The move is said to be for ‘extracting’ a joint proclamation of them necessary for further power manoeuvres in the island. A couple of years ago it was such a behind-the-scenes move of some powers that made most of these parties, except the TNA, rally behind Mahinda Rajapaksa and pledge support to him in the war that brought in disaster to the Tamils.”

It mattered little to TamilNet that it was an extraordinary development. It is unfortunate given the unprecedented consensus arrived at in Zurich to develop an effective common programme to hold the government accountable for the protection of minorities and to act as a serious and dependable negotiating party representing the demands of the minorities in the development of meaningful proposals for reform in the island nation.

This has to be seen against the reality that the three minority communities (ethnic Tamils, Tamils of Indian origin and Muslims) have nursed grudges against the majority Sinhala community, the political establishment of the day, as well as between themselves. Political parties representing these groups are divided on many lines, and their affiliations vis-a-vis the majority parties are varied. Some are with the government, some with the opposition and others in-between.

Of the three communities, Muslims believe that they are the victims of majority as well as minority politics and for good reason. The minority Muslim community constitutes the oldest category of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka.

About 90,000 Muslim IDPs have been languishing in temporary government-run welfare centres in Puttalam since 1990. They were evicted forcibly from the North by the LTTE weeks after the last soldier of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) left Sri Lankan shores. Suspecting their loyalties, the Tigers robbed them of their land and valuables. An outfit championing the cause of the minorities treated a minority community living in the territory under its control in a callous manner.

The Puttalam refugees, who number one-third of those displaced in Eelam War IV, have so far figured as a footnote in the ongoing debate on post-Prabakaran Sri Lanka. The Tamil diaspora is silent on the subject and the international community behaves as if they do not exist.

Weeks after the Norway-brokered 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the Ranil Wickremesinghe government and the LTTE, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Rauf Hakeem, signed a pact with Prabakaran that guaranteed the right of return for Muslims to LTTE-controlled areas. It remained on paper.

In its 2007 report titled “Sri Lanka’s Muslims: Caught in the Crossfire”, the International Crisis Group (ICG), a non-governmental organisation think tank, said that immediate steps should be taken to ensure the security and political involvement of Muslims if a lasting peace settlement was to be achieved.

Developments thus far suggest that the spirit of Zurich evaporated even before the ink on the joint statement had dried. The joint statement said: “We.., Affirm the historic meeting enabling an exchange of views, and express a full commitment to a common forum among representatives of all Tamil-speaking peoples;

“Recognise ‘Tamil-speaking peoples’ comprises three distinct peoples: Tamils, Muslims, and Tamils of Indian origin; Respect the distinct and separate identities, interests and positions of the parties;

“Recognise and affirm the need for unity and consensus among the Tamil-speaking peoples while acknowledging differences with regard to some issues and the paths to pursue them….” A press release said the parties agreed to a “just and durable political solution” in the island through a dignified, respectful and peaceful process and agreed to continue the discussions.

That the minorities are caught in a catch-22 situation became all the more evident when Mano Ganeshan, leader of Sri Lanka’s Western People’s Front (WPF) and Member of Parliament from Colombo district, disclosed in a write-up on Groundviews, a Sri Lankan citizen journalism initiative, that his party had sent a questionnaire to General Fonseka and was awaiting his response. He said that as a party representing the oppressed Tamil minorities, the WPF maintained dialogue with all sources. “We will be wiped off if we refuse to answer all the calls we receive. We cannot be another LTTE. We value engagements.”

For right or wrong reasons, Ganeshan was the first to line up behind Fonseka and, of course, with adequate reasoning and safeguards, such as the decision of his party to keep the line of communication open with the TNA. He went a step further and beseeched the Tamils in the North and East to cast their second preferential vote to Fonseka.

Kumar David, an expatriate Sri Lankan, wondered in an article titled “Rewriting history at breakneck speed”:

“It comes as no surprise that feral dogs have been unleashed to tear out throats and gouge out eyes; the surprise is that it has happened so quickly. Six months ago portraits of the heroic troika were carried through the nation’s streets in glorious victory pageants. After three years of murders, abductions, impunity in the criminal abuse of state power, and a civil war, the insanity has reached its apogee in the events of the last few weeks. Sri Lanka has become surreal; pinch yourself, wake-up, is all this really happening?”

© Frontline

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Epoch Making Year for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka ushered in a new era of peace in 2009 with the annihilation of LTTE and the death of its megalomaniac chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose pursuit for 'Tamil Eelam' claimed the lives of over 70,000 people in three decades.

For India, it was a tight rope walk as it quickly stepped in after the end of the civil war by announcing a Rs 500 crore package to Sri Lanka for rehabilitation and resettlement of nearly 3 lakh displaced Tamil civilians.

New Delhi also told Colombo to quickly follow up the military victory with a political solution to integrate the Tamil minority into the mainstream.

The military win over LTTE came as a shot in the arm for President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who gave a free run to the Army to take on the terror group after he came to power in 2005, when one-third of Lankan land was held by the Tigers.

The victory prompted Rajapaksa to call Presidential polls nearly two years ahead of schedule apparently to cash in on the sentiments.

But, it will not be a cake walk for Rajapaksa as he is being challenged by another 'war hero' and former Army Chief Gen Sarath Fonseka, who is contesting as the common opposition candidate.

Fonseka resigned as Chief of Defence Staff, a ceremonial post to which he was appointed after the war, in November and jumped into the Presidential poll foray.

Votes of over three million Tamils and Tamil speaking Muslims are considered crucial for Rajapaksa to continue in office for another six years.

The Tamil National Alliance, which has a considerable influence among Tamils, has not yet decided on its stand in the polls.

Though Sri Lanka has resettled nearly 2 lakh people in their towns and villages in the former LTTE-held areas in the island's north, reconstruction of the areas and rehabilitation of people are yet to begin.

The year gone-by was fruitful for Sri Lanka, which was grappling with the menace of terrorism since late 70s, as the troops began the year with the capture of Kilinochchi, the de-facto capital of the Tamil Tigers, on January 2.

This was the beginning of the end of the LTTE as it lost all its strongholds in the north-east in the next few months culminating in the death of all top leaders of the outfit, including Prabhakaran on May 18.

It ended the 30-year-old civil war that claimed the lives of 70,000 people and annihilated the LTTE, which had eliminated a number of high-profile Sri Lankan Sinhala and Tamil politicians, besides Rajiv Gandhi.

Just two days after the war ended, India sent two of its top officials -- National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and the then Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon -- to Colombo to assure Sri Lanka of its support in resettlement and rehabilitation process.

New Delhi has also impressed upon Sri Lanka a number of times to quickly follow up the military victory with a political solution that is acceptable to the minority Tamil community.

India has also promised help for Sri Lanka in railway projects and reviving agriculture in the former war zones.

A high-level Sri Lankan team consisting of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Presidential Adviser Basil Rajapaksa was in New Delhi twice to discuss the relief and rehabilitation process.

India also opposed a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva demanding a probe against Sri Lanka into alleged human rights violation during the last phase of war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has assured that the government will make every effort to resettle all Tamil IDPS by January 31.

India has indicated more funds for rehabilitation of the IDPs. It a had sent 2.5 lakh family packs consisting of dry ration, clothing, utensils and footwear from Tamil Nadu to displaced civilians since October 2008.

India will be sending three more de-mining teams even as four such teams are already there, as per the recommendation of the parliamentary delegation from Tamil Nadu which visited Sri Lanka in October.

© Outlook India

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Sri Lanka takes more time to study war crime charges

Sri Lanka's president has given legal experts four more months to study a US State Department report cataloging alleged war crimes on the island, the presidency said in a statement Monday.

President Mahinda Rajapakse extended the December 31 deadline of the panel he appointed in November to formulate a response to the US report, which accused Sri Lankan forces of war crimes while battling Tamil separatists.

"The president has... extended by four months the period given to the committee to study and report on the US State Department Report," the president's office said in a statement.

A recent query by the United Nations over remarks by the country's former army chief Sarath Fonseka that some surrendering rebels were killed in cold blood was also being referred to the panel for study, the statement said.

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry has already dismissed the US report as "unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence."

Sri Lanka has been under international pressure to investigate allegations of human rights abuses and war crimes during the final stages of its battle against the Tamil Tiger rebels, who were defeated in May.

Among claims detailed in the US report was the accusation that Tiger leaders were executed after reaching a surrender agreement with government forces.

Fonseka, who is challenging Rajapakse in a January 26 election, has said he was given information about the alleged killing of the surrendering rebels by an unnamed state media reporter embedded with troops.

Fonseka said he himself was away in China at the time of the incident.

Sri Lanka's then foreign secretary Palitha Kohona had earlier said the rebel leaders were killed by their own men while they tried to surrender during the final days of fighting.

© AFP

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Indian companies plan to make huge investments in Sri Lanka

S.Venkat Narayan - Seven months after the bloody civil war ended in Sri Lanka, Indian companies that are already working in the island are now busy making plans to make huge investments to expand their business there.

They appear eager to participate in the anticipated post-war reconstruction boom, especially in core sectors, such as energy and information technology.

According to information available here, at least six such companies have finalized their plans.

They are: Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Lanka India Oil Corporation (Lanka IOC), Cairn Lanka Pvt Ltd, Lanka Ashok Leyland, and Mphasis.

India is Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner. It is now the island’s largest source of imports, and the fourth largest export destination. Bilateral trade witnessed a boom after the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade agreement came into force on 1 March 2000. In 2008, the two-way trade shot up to $3,265 million or LKRs 3,72,210 million, from just $658 million or LKRs 75,012 million in 2000.

Nearly a hundred Indian companies are currently doing business in Sri Lanka. So far, they have invested $400 million , or LKRs 45,600 million. An additional investment of about $300 million or LKRs 34,200 million, is involved in projects that are in various stages of implementation after receiving due approvals from the Sri Lankan Board of Investment (BOI).

The proposed investment plans of the NTPC and PGCIL alone amount to a staggering one billion US dollars, or LKRs 114,000 million.

PGCIL plans to install power transmission lines between India and Sri Lanka to pave the way for eventual trading of electricity between the two countries. The proposed 285km line includes submarine cables over a stretch of 50km. Once ready, it will enable the two neighbours to trade their surplus power with each other, thereby offering a cheaper option to bridge a power generating deficit.

The project, estimated to cost US$500 million, or LKRs 57,000 million, will link the power grid in Tamil Nadu to the transmission system in Sri Lanka. Initially, the line will have a capacity of 500 Mw, and is proposed to be doubled later.

NTPC, India’s biggest power company, is in the process of signing a joint venture agreement with the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to set up a 1,000-Mw coal-based power unit with an investment of $500 million.

The project got delayed due to differences over where to locate the plant. All issues have now been sorted out, and the joint venture is likely to be signed soon. Now that the security concerns have vanished, NTPC has agreed to set up the plant in Eastern Trincomalee.

Indian Oil, too, is looking to diversifying into the bitumen business in the island. SV Narasimhan, IOC’s Director (Finance) and Chairman of Lanka IOC, told "Business Standard" newspaper: "The Sri Lankan economy will be on a growth trajectory. We already have a presence in lubes, bunker and fuel retailing. Now, we are trying to get into bitumen business and also exploring other avenues. In the lube business, we are tying up with other parties for utilizing our surplus capacity."

Since the end of the civil war, Lanka Ashok Leyland, a joint venture company between Ashok Leyland and the Sri Lankan government, has been experience in demand. The company hopes to sell 1,300 vehicles in the next four months.

Says Lanka Ashok Leyland’s CEO Umesh Gautam: " We have witnessed a boom in the local economy during the past three months. The government is opening all the highways and there will be a demand for commercial vehicles to transport construction equipment for rehabilitation work (in the North and East). We are gearing up to be a part in all this."

Cairn India Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cairn India, has already started a 3D seismic survey in the Mannar Basin. Drilling will follow in the first half of 2011.

Last fortnight, Indian IT services company Mphasis announced plans to set up a facility in Sri Lanka that will be operational by the middle of 2010. It plans to hire 2,000 professionals over the next three years.

In 2008, Sri Lanka attracted $889 million or LKRs 1,01,346 million in foreign direct investment (FDI). Of this, $126 million or LKRs 14,364 million came from India.

A recent study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said that upcoming investments in Sri Lanka are likely to be in core sectors such as oil exploration and production, power, telecom, IT and real estate.

© The Island

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Sri Lankan aid projects investigated

Nearly $537 million in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and more than $686m has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, an anti-corruption watchdog says.

Berlin-based Transparency International has demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims of the Asian tsunami that hit the island on December 26, 2004, killing 31,000 people.

As the tropical nation marked the fifth anniversary of the tsunami, the group alleged that out of $US2.2 billion ($2.5bn) received for relief, $US603.4m was spent on projects unrelated to the disaster. Another $US471.9m is missing, the group said.

"There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of $US471.9m," the TI statement issued in Colombo added. An "audit should be done by the government to explain the utilisation of the money received and the challenges faced", the group said.

A government official declined to comment on the allegations, but Colombo has rejected such accusations in the past.

The claims added to corruption concerns as the reconstruction effort winds down.

UN Under-Secretary General Noeleen Heyzer also voiced fears about early-warning system. Countries in the region had been working with international partners to strengthen systems but "significant gaps" needed to be addressed, he said.

The 2004 tsunami was triggered by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra and seismologists agree another event of that magnitude is almost certain to strike the quake-prone region.

But former US president Bill Clinton, who helped raise millions of dollars in aid for tsunami-hit nations, said Asia had "built back better" since the disaster.

"We will never forget the stories of those who lost their loved ones and all their worldly possessions in one of the worst natural disasters of our time," he said.

"Nor will we forget the tremendous international response from governments, businesses, NGOs, and private citizens who sent money, aid, and prayers in unprecedented volume to the affected regions. We did more than just build back; we built back better."

People across Asia paused over the weekend to remember the day five years ago when an undersea earthquake unleashed the devastating wave that killed more than 220,000 people.

A solemn day of prayers and remembrance to mark one of the world's worst natural disasters was held in Indonesia's Aceh province, which lost almost 170,000 people in the Asian tsunami.

At the site of one of the graves, where more than 14,000 unidentified victims are buried, an elderly woman sat on the ground weeping and reciting Koranic verses for the 40 members of her family who died.

"None of my family members survived in the tsunami. My children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, they all have gone and left me alone here," Siti Aminah, 72, said.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse led remembrance ceremonies by observing two minutes of silence for tsunami victims.

Low-key commemorations marked the anniversary in southern India, which bore the brunt of the disaster in that country, with an estimated 6500 deaths.

On Marina beach in Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, women from fishing hamlets poured milk into the sea and showered flower petals over the water as a mark of respect for those who died.

In Thailand, where 5395 people died, according to the official toll, ceremonies were held on the beach in Phang Nga on the west coast, which was worst hit, and on the southern island of Phuket.

© The Australian

Related Links:
5 Years Later, Questions Over Tsunami Aid - www.myfoxspokane.com

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Sri Lanka tsunami aid misappropriated: watchdog

Nearly half a billion dollars in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over 600 million dollars has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, an anti-corruption watchdog said Saturday.

Berlin-based Transparency International demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims of the Asian tsunami which hit the island on December 26, 2004, killing 31,000 people.

The group's Sri Lankan chapter said the public have a right to know how the aid money was spent as the tropical nation marked the fifth anniversary of the tsunami.

The group alleged that out of 2.2 billion dollars received for relief, 603.4 million dollars was spent on projects unrelated to the disaster.

Another half a billion dollars was missing, the group said.

"There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of 471.9 million dollars," the Transparency International statement issued in Colombo added.

An "audit should be done by the government to explain the utilisation of the money received and the challenges faced," the group said.

An government official declined comment Saturday on the allegations but Colombo has consistently rejected such accusations in the past.

An initial government audit in 2005 found that less than 13 percent of the aid had been spent, but there has been no formal examination since, Transparency International said.

© AFP

Related Links:
Lessons to be learnt from Tsunami Reconstruction - Transparency International
Lost and found: Recovering from Sri Lanka's tsunami - BBC

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Sri Lankans want to know where tsunami aid has gone

Feizal Samath - Five years after the tsunami swept over the shores of Sri Lanka destroying everything in its path, victims are continuing to rebuild their lives. But their efforts have been plagued by nagging questions over widespread corruption in programmes expected to provide thousands of houses worth billions of rupees.

More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed and more than a half million displaced when an earthquake off the Indonesian coast on December 26, 2004 triggered a series of tsunamis along coastlines in the Indian Ocean. Nearly 100,000 houses in Sri Lanka were destroyed by the deadly waves.

A drive down to Galle or Matara in the south and Batticaloa or Ampara in the east reveals numerous tsunami victims who have yet to receive promised houses or compensation, while the houses built for many others were constructed so shoddily that they need to be replaced.

Elsy Priyadharshi, a tsunami survivor from Wattala, a coastal town about 10km north of Colombo, was quoted in a statement issued on Tuesday by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) as saying that soon after the tsunami struck, she and her family found refuge in a nearby church and then moved to a camp for the displaced and thereafter to transitional shelters.

“After five years we are finally moving to permanent houses, which are 100,000 times better than the camp where we stayed before and this has helped us get our lives back to normality,” Ms Priyadharshi, who has been a leading advocate for permanent housing, said in the statement.

Her new home is part of the IOM tsunami recovery programme that has built about 8,570 emergency transitional shelters and permanent homes for tsunami-affected communities along the southern and eastern coasts of the island nation. Takuya Ono, the head of IOM Sri Lanka’s engineering services, said in the statement that without a permanent home, it is difficult for people to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

Ms Priyadharshi and others are now asking why it took so long for them to get a home to call their own.

Transparency International Sri Lanka in March 2007 found that funds pledged by donors for post-tsunami work totalled 241.5 billion rupees (Dh18.9bn), of which 122 billion rupees were disbursed to various implementing agencies. Out of this, only 68.5 billion rupees were spent on projects.

“There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of 53.5 billion rupees [of money disbursed],” TI said at the time. Rukshana Nanayakkara, TI Sri Lanka’s deputy executive director, said no proper audit of funds used in post-tsunami work has been done. “An audit was done by the government’s auditor general in 2005 [soon after the money came in from donors] but nothing after that,” he said in a recent interview.

“There were serious issues about how the money was being spent and by whom,” said Firzan Hashim, the deputy executive director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, which acts as a co-ordinating body for many non-governmental organisation’s relief efforts, including Save the Children and Oxfam.

Mr Hashim pointed out that after numerous NGOs swarmed into the country after the tsunami hit, local authorities struggled to keep track of their movements. Citing one example of the attempts to misuse donor funds, Mr Hashim explained how one foreign couple wanted pictures of tsunami housing projects to send abroad to a donor and claim it was done by them. “We chased them away,” he said.

Jayaweerabaduge Nimal, a 43-year-old fisherman from Ussangoda village near the southern town of Hambantota, said he’s lucky to be alive after the tsunami almost swept him away. While his house was not destroyed, as it was some distance from the sea, he said several new houses meant for the victims went to others who were unaffected.

“If you were friendly with a local politician or prepared to pay a small bribe to a local official, you could get a house on false pretences,” he said.

Mr Nimal’s sister and four other relatives died in the tragedy. His parents, whose house was near the beach at Ussangoda, survived the tragedy but their house was washed away.

Mr Nimal does recall one short-term benefit left in the tsunami’s wake. While many fishermen didn’t return to the sea for nearly three months, he took his catamaran out to sea in early January 2005 and was blessed with a large catch. “There was an overflow of fish as no fishing had taken place for several days and we had plenty to eat and sell,” he recalled.

Mohamed Rushdi, also from Hambantota, has no such positive memories of the effects of the tsunami. “We were on the second floor of our house and heard this loud noise. With my father and mother, I rushed downstairs and then saw the place flooded. We then rushed upstairs only to be washed away as the waters swelled and rose,” he said.

Moments later Mr Rushdi found himself 500 metres away from his home with a broken leg and debris all over. The bodies of his parents were never recovered. Mr Rushdi now lives in Canada. He recently returned to Sri Lanka for his sister’s wedding. “That was a traumatic experience,” he said, recalling the tsunami and its aftermath.

But the wave of sympathy for the affected, irrespective of race or religion, in those early days, lifted some hopes that the majority Sinhalese would patch up their differences with minority Tamils who were complaining of discrimination in state education and jobs.

“Unfortunately that didn’t happen. We lost a great opportunity for unity after the tsunami. We have another chance now that the conflict is over,” said Renton de Alwis, the former head of Sri Lanka’s state agency responsible for tourism, who is now a social activist.

Today the government says it is better prepared should another tsunami hit. Gamini Hettiarachchi, the director general of the Disaster Management Centre, said 55 tsunami warning towers have been placed across the island with sirens and speaker systems that are operated at the press of a button from the Colombo-based centre.

“We get global alerts on earthquakes and did an evacuation on a tsunami warning in July 2007,” he said, adding that creating awareness on disasters such as the tsunami and setting up district committees on early warning, search and rescue, and camp management have been going on in the past few years.

The Disaster Management Centre was organising a tsunami-alert rehearsal at 3pm on Saturday in 11 districts in which 400 to 500 families will be evacuated to safer ground after warnings are sounded.

“We need to maintain a state of preparedness,” Mr Hettiarachchi said.

© The National

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In Sri Lanka, Tsunami Anniversary Inspires Mixed Reactions

By Amantha Perera - They were the iconic images of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami from Sri Lanka — the twisted hulks of eight carriages and a locomotive swept aside and tossed around like matchboxes by the killer waves. The train was packed with passengers and others who had sought refuge in them when the first wave hit Sri Lanka's southern shore. When the larger and deadlier swell struck them on the tracks, villagers estimate that as many as 1500 died inside.

The drowned train in Peraliya, about 60 miles (95 km) south of Colombo, soon became the most sought after camera opportunity for visiting media that followed the catastrophic tsunami five years ago this week. Hundreds came each day to look at the empty carriages, three of which were left standing on the side of the track for months while parts of the train were salvaged.

Today, the village of Peraliya is serene. The carriages are gone, and the few visitors who stop by come to see a large Buddha statue, or the memorial for those who died, located close to the wreckage site. The carriages themselves, once tagged to be the showcase of a national tsunami memorial, are now rusting at a yard in Colombo, and will likely be sold for scrap metal unless they decay before that. The dents where the waves hit are more pronounced now, and rusting has left gaping holes caving in the roofs and walls. The carriages' guts are a mess of ripped seats, metal poles, dirt and clothing, diaries and shoes. No one at the yard is sure who they belong to. Some could be from curious visitors who got into the carriages; others could of those doomed inside them. "After the initial rush to see them, they were soon forgotten," says Lalith Gamhewa, the station master at Hikkaduwa, where the three carriages remained from December 2005 until mid-2008 before they were moved to Colombo."Like the tsunami."

The approaching five year anniversary of tsunami in Sri Lanka inspired mixed reactions among the survivors along the southern coast. The waves left over 35,000 dead here, displaced over a million people, destroyed 100,0000 houses and left 150,000 without jobs. The reconstruction bill was $3.5 billion. But for many who faced the waves directly, it seems the country has moved on and all but forgotten the details. "I am not sure whether many know of the five year commemorations. It seems like it is something from the past and gone," says Ajantha Smarawickrema, a television cameraman who shot images of four women being dragged by the waves in Galle, a town three miles (5 km) from the train wreck.

But the waves still dictate the daily life of 22-year-old Aniseya Sulthan, a young Muslim woman living in a temporary shelter for the tsunami displaced on the east coast. Over 1300 families in the town of Kalmunai continue to wait for houses five years after their homes were swept away. Now, with no house to put up as a dowry, Aniseya's parents are having difficulty finding a suitable groom for her. "I built a nice house near the coast for her. Nothing was left of it after the tsunami," Nafrath Sulthan, her father, tells TIME. He sits in front of one of dozens of dimly lit, tin-sheet roofed shelters, with clothes, suitcases, extra furniture, garbage and even domestic chickens littered out front. Thick electrical wires coil near the top of the doors of some of the structures; their occupants fear that power outages could end up engulfing their homes. It's happened before.

Aniseya hides behind the front door, peeping out occasionally as her father speaks, her face covered with a head scarf. "Our tradition is that girls have to get married when they are 21, 22. Time is running out for her," the nervous father said.

Lack of housing is a problem for young Muslim women like Anesiya still living in the shelters, admits Ismail Thawfiek, the top government official in the area. He says the delay in construction has been forced by the 213-foot (65m) no-build buffer zone implemented along the coast in Kalmunai after the tsunami. Authorities have been forced to reclaim land formerly used for paddy cultivation to build the new homes to replace those that fell in the buffer zone. "Land is a big issue here, but we have located them. We think we can give all these people the houses by early next year," says Thawfiek.

In Hambantota, another town on the south coast, the houses have been built too fast, some say. In Siribopura, a massive tsunami rehousing scheme spanning over nearly 600 acres (240 hectares). Over 1500 houses have sprung up in an area where elephants used to walk. Businessmen complain that the development's new market and business complex is too far out from the former city center, and some residents working in the fishing industry who found it too difficult to commute between between the new housing in Siribopura and the beach have already sublet their new units to move closer to the shore. Another lot of houses rapidly constructed through public donations from Hungary started losing rafters, beams and windows even before the first tenants arrived. "Some of the houses were so bad, that no one could live in them," says Charles Rathnayake, a resident who moved in after extensive repairs. Around him many of the houses at Hungama, or 'Hungarian Village,' were being overtaken by shrub.

Not everyone, however, is complaining. The very first class of students from Siribopura's new school will take the main government exam in December. "We are very happy. We have a new school, new friends, and the sea is far away," says one beaming student, Thilini Sara. (The school still runs a special counseling program for its students to get over the trauma caused by the waves.) Ajith Priyantha, a fishing boat operator tending his nets on the Hambantota fishing harbor, is also grateful for the help. "We got boats and nets. It was easy for us to get back to fishing," he says.

But for all who fell victim to the deadly waves, the memories of December 26, 2004 are not as easy to shrug off. There are still houses and buildings left untouched after the waves receded, standing like skeletal ghosts with long shadows amidst the newly constructed buildings. Small blue signs dot the coast, indicating where to run in case of a tsunami warning. Sri Lankan authorities recently tested a multi-million dollar early warning system along the beaches. In Sainathimaruthu, where villagers say at least 3500 died, a large red tower stands on the beach equipped with a public address system — a constant reminder that, despite the rhythms of life having returned to some kind of normalcy, it could happen again.

© TIME

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'Weapons were for Sri Lanka' says crew

A crew charged in Thailand with illegal arms possession say their plane was headed for Sri Lanka and not Iran, when it was seized in the Thai capital with a cache of North Korean weapons, media reports from Thailand reported on Wednesday (23).

Defense lawyer Somsak Saithong had told the media that the four Kazakhstan citizens and one from Belarus, as saying that their flight plan called for a refueling stop in Bangkok before flying to Sri Lanka.

But according to a flight plan seen by arms trafficking researchers, the aircraft was chartered by Hong Kong-based Union Top Management Ltd., or UTM, to fly oil industry spare parts from Pyongyang to Tehran, Iran, with several other stops, including in Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

"They always deny any involvement with the weapons or any charges they are accused of. They told me that their job was just to fly the cargo plane to its destination. They don't know about or had anything to do with the cargo itself" said Somsak.

The plane's papers described its cargo as oil-drilling machinery for delivery to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan authorities had earlier rejected reports that the plane was heading for Sri Lanka

In an interview with the BBC, Expert on International terrorism, Dr. Rohan Gunaratne said the weapon were not heading towards Sri Lanka.

"During the conflict, the Tamil Tigers got ninety percent of their weapons from North Korea but they came on ships." says Dr. Gunaratne.

© BBC Sinhala

Related Links:
Thais: US tip led to seizure of arms from NKorea - Boston.com
Days after U.S. envoy's trip to N.Korea, U.N.banned weapons are seized - LA Times
North Korean Arms Transport Plane Part of CIA Sting Operation - truthseeker.co.uk
Plane crew denies knowledge of arms - Deccan Herald
Officials Seek Destination of North Korean Arms - The New York Times
Weapons-carrying cargo plane headed for Sri Lanka - Associated Press
North Korea weapons aircraft 'was heading to Iran' - Times Online
Iran denies involvement in arms-laden plane incident - RIA Novosti
Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan disavow arms flight from North Korea - Guardian
North Korean arms plane 'has links to New Zealand'- Times Online
New Zealand probes links to North Korea arms plane - The Nation
NZ Businessman: Unaware of North Korea Weapons - The Wall Street Journal

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